Alternative Famous Firsts
Gregr - @heygregr on social media
Mornings
KNDD (107.7 The End)/Seattle
KPEK in Albuquerque, NM, airing traffic during the PD's voice tracked show while he was in promo meetings etc. I was 15 and remember thinking the traffic guy calling himself Skywalker was SO COOL.
OMG it was Korn at the Wool Warehouse, Albuquerque, in 1996 - when Jonathan Davis brought out the bagpipes we lost it. Tiny venue, terrible neighborhood, grungy band with a metal cover of nursery rhymes how ridiculous. We all wanted seven-string Ibanez guitars after that!
A got a few tapes as a kid but my first non-C&C Music Factory album was Pearl Jam's Vs. My much older cousin was so proud of me and bought me Ten. I always like Vs better because it has "Animal" on it.
I have literally no idea. I can't even remember what station it was at. I remember my first terrible interview (DM me and i'll share the artist) but they were so cool until we turned the microphones on and then they put down their sunglasses and were total jerks. And my first amazing interview was Rob Zombie coming into KFMA in Tucson with his supermodel wife and their pet pug, Dracula, and he played records for an hour. He saw my personal CD book in the studio and started pulling my old punk rock records out - misfits, minor threat, DK and playing those and I felt SO COOL. He was a really sweet guy.
My first dead air at KNDD - I got done at 6p and tracked until 7p - at 7:15p I get a call that we had dead air and it was somehow my fault (it was not). I lived 20 minutes away and made it to the station in 17 minutes and just as I got there someone else finally just went and hit play again. I somehow still had to have the lecture - insert Liam Lynch *whatevah.*
Brian Phillips
PM Drive (3-7p weekdays); "History Of Alternative" host/curator (8-12noon Sunday)
WKQX (Q101)/Chicago
Z100/NYC (1995)
Depeche Mode / Giants Stadium (1990)
Violent Femmes (self-titled). It was a fixture in the cassette Walkman for at least a year.
Dave Navarro (phoner) 2003 - WHTG (New Jersey). We were chatting for about 10 minutes having a fun conversation (I believe he was calling from a tour bus in Cincinnati) when he stopped and asked, "Did the interview start?". I said, "yes, 10 minutes ago" so, he continued in a more serious, "prepared answers and copy points" tone and vibe. The first 10 minutes were much more interesting.
There may have been a few during those early Jersey days...none of them MY fault (of course). Better dead air story: WRXP in 2008. I left the studio for a minute (around 10:30p or so). The cleaning person entered the studio to vacuum the floor and inadvertently knocked the station off-the-air. There was roughly 4 minutes of dead air (it seemed like an hour).
Jay Michaels
Brand Manager
WHJT-HD2 (Rock 93.1)/Jackson, MS (also CHR Y101 & AC Mix 987)
My first job was incredible. I was at UT Austin and interned at KHFI KISS FM in the late 80s and eventually elevated to Music Director and Nights and found my calling. What an incredible time to be in radio. The phones never stopped. I still have this love and passion to this day.
The Police in Denver as a kid. The Go-Go’s opened and at the moment the Go-Go's became my all time favorite band even to this day.
This is a hard one but I would say the Grease Soundtrack plus early 80s Human League, Eurythmics, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Siouxie And The Banshees, Go-Gos, Duran Duran and Adam and the Ants. It's actually hard to pick out the very first as I was obsessed with vinyl and spent a lot of time at the famous Wax Trax in Denver buying tons of records and picture discs. Moving around with college and jobs I had to get rid of most of it which I really regret today! I was an 80s New Wave kid!
It’s hard to think back that far but the interviews really kicked in the early 90s from Pearl Jam to Jewel Sugar Ray to New Kids On The Block. So many incredible iconic artists from all formats.
This happened doing the night show in Austin at KISSFM in the late 80s doing the night show and working the reel to reel machine. Talk about complicated, running callers back all night was an experience and the dead air always happened when the tape on the reel-to-reel snapped. Complete panic! I still have dead air nightmares now to this day which I think many radio people can relate to!
